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Agra to Kolkata
So our tour finished today!
Thats that. 12 people who didn't know each other 3 weeks ago are going their own ways around the world.......
More of that in a minute. First, where did we leave you last, our faithful readers?
Bharatpur.
So we had a coach fiasco leaving that tiny town, we ended up leaving on a coach that wasn't booked for us, in all of the spare sleeper compartments (The long distance coaches here have lie down sleeper cabins above the normal seating arrangement, incredably uncomfortable, but it means you can get an extra..........50-60 people on board, and in India that's a winner!). Arrived in Agra later than we wanted, but managed to get in to see the Taj Mahal by 3pm until the sun set at 6.30ish. We could wax lyrical for hours about the building and the grounds, the serenity, the romance, the hypnotic lines, the changing colours of the sun on white marble, these things are true, it is a monumental building which will not be forgotton by us. However, of more interest to the nuts and bolts detail seekers amongst you will be the crowds, many, MANY people, all of whom are trying to get 'THE' shot of the Taj (some argy bhargy between some americans and germans in particular areas), the smell (you have to take your shoes off to get on to the marble floored area, and BOY there was some smell especially inside the tomb), and the fact that Agra (will from this point be refered to as Agro!) is possibly the worst place we have ever been to in our lives! Everybody in Agro wants to rip you off or sell you junk and they won't take no for an answer (well they will, but only on the 20-26th time!). A very annoying place, a shame as they have a really lovely building!
From Agro we moved on to Varanassi! The train journey was very ordinary (16 hours overnight sleeper train) but the departure station was surreal! We arrived early to avoid traffic (wedding season in Agro, and every night throughout Feb, come 6 in the evening the streets are filled with grooms dressed in white, on white horses with a brass band dressed in off white (a polluted city you see) playing for them, they don't go anywhere hence the traffic chaos), and the train was 2 hours late which added up to a 4 hour wait at the station, not such a bad thing until you learn dear reader that the station was the roosting place of 1 million plus Indian Myna birds, all above our heads with no where for us to go that wasn't in some way in the' line of fire' of their evening deposits!!!! Horrendous! The girls even gave up screaming about it after an hour or so! Quite a situation one never wants repeated!
Varanassi! Wow! The oldest city on Earth (so they say!). Very religious, very randomly laid out, very crazy, but in a religious zealot way rather than a rampant tourism way (there was a festival to Durga while we were there, every half hour a group of young men who had all chipped in for a model of the godess Durga paraded through the street to loud music and much joviality and dancing until they reached the Ghats (steps to the water) where they boarded a boat, rowed into the middle of the Ganges and promptly dumped their effegy into the water, we loved this specticle until we realized it went on wellllll into the wee hours, with the music getting louder and more 'hardcore techno' the later it got! Varanassi is a wonderful place though, much more laid back, still chaotic (the traffic is unbelievably bad!), but once down to the Ganges everything changes, a very serene and peaceful, yet lively and wild place. The group took 2 boat rides. 1 to watch sunset and place 250 little candles made of leaves into the water. 1 at sunset to watch the morning Pujas (prayers) and to see the ghats change from grey to gold in the morning sun. Lovely.
On Valentines we had a late night Autorickshaw ride across town through back allys to get to a posh hotel so we could have a drink (No booze in the Holy places you see!) and a fantastic meal, though we were a little shaken up and sooty by the time we arrived! All in all we were sad to leave.
However, now we have arrived in Kolkata we can think of few places we would rather have come to. It is so very different again. Unlike the rest of India that we have seen, comparably to perhaps London, or Paris or most likely New York. It is relaxed, famous for its arts and culture, museums, galleries, European architecture, NOBODY hassles you, there are no cows, NO COWS! Every inch of India before now has been sterooond with cows! It's a really great city, we even watched an Indian Blues band playing Jimi Hendrix covers last night (and they were amazingly good! It's been a while since we saw live music maybe!!).
We had the last supper last night. Cis and Lara left last night for Hanoi, Mandy for Mumbai. Sanjay G our lovely leader flew back to Delhi this afternoon. Silja and Carolina are off to Bangkok tomorrow, Edwin Snore and Sebben are off to Nepal in 3 days time, and Steve and Jo are joining us in Darjeeling! Yay! Company for our first solo missions which is a really lovely way to break ourselves in to the 'leaderless travel!'.
Our flights are booked (all trains booked up weeks ago! DOH! Flights cost 50 pound for the 2 of us, not bad!). We leave tomorrow (18th) at mid day. To the Hill station (about 9 degrees up there which will be a shock after the 27 of Kolkata!) the mountains and the TEA! Wonderful!
More when there's more
JnJ
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